Ok, we are truly spoiled. We live in California with access to amazing organic fruits and organic vegetables year round. We cook our dinners using the freshest ingredients as much as possible. The abundance of choices we have is huge.
So with all this, I find we get stuck doing the same dishes over and over. Some days we want something different. I found myself in that situation the other night. We had boneless organic chicken breasts. I didn’t want them broiled, or baked or done with rosemary, white wine and garlic. I didn’t want chicken piccata, all our standard fare.
So I realized I had to think outside our box of standbys. I knew I was going to flatten the breasts for easy, quick and even cooking. So what did I have? I had onions, red bell pepper, fresh and frozen whole tomatoes, garlic, herbs. Ok, a quick light tomato sauce to put on top of the chicken.
With my trusty meat mallet, I had the breasts flattened to about 1/4 inch plus overall within 5-7 minutes for 3 breasts. Flattening them breaks up the tissues and getting the thickest part to be about the same size as the rest of the chicken. This helps it cook quickly and easily. I had found this great mallet years ago. It’s still available for the same price and it’s so worth it!
I sauteed the chicken breasts in extra virgin olive oil seasoned with salt, freshly ground pepper, oregano and marjoram. It took 5-7 minutes or so turning them once and seasoning the other side. You want them just barely cooked through at this point. I put them on a dish and into the oven to keep warm.
Chicken Breasts with simple Pizzaiola Sauce
I added some more olive oil, added 1/4 of a large onion, chopped, and 1 large clove garlic, minced. Then I chopped one small whole tomato, added two frozen chopped plum tomatoes, seasoned everything with salt, pepper, oregano, basil and added some dried chili flakes. Adding a little white wine, I covered it with a lid to let it all cook.
Soon I added some halved pitted kalamata olives, say 8-12 olives. Then I removed the lid to let some liquid evaporate, added the breasts for the last 5 minutes. I put the breasts on the plate, topped it with the sauce and served. Start to finish 25-30 minutes. This is great with fresh green salad with an Italian vinagrette. Buon Appetito!
Sounds really delicious and easy, Julieanne. I’m not the biggest fan of olives though – do you think it will lose a lot of flavor without them? Thanks for posting this!
Not at all Cory! I originally had not put them in. When I decided to check out pizzaiolo sauces, I saw it listed. I love olives so I threw some in. Go for it! The onions, garlic along with oregano and basil will give you lots of flavor. The chili flakes can be done to your taste as well. I had very little hotness.
This was delicious just to read! Love most of the ingredients but I’m not one for olives (seems like a theme in the comments so far). Olive oil yes, olives no. So what do you think? I was quite interested in that meat mallet. Never thought of using a tool like that on chicken. I remember you saying you loved to cook, so it’s fun to see a cooking blog from you.
Judy Stone-Goldman
The Reflective Writer
http://www.thereflectivewriter.com
Personal-Professional Balance Through Writing
Yes, you can leave the olives out. It was an afterthought after I decided to google the pizzaiola sauce. I’ll send you the link to the mallet. I love that little bugger. It’s heavy which is what makes the work so easy. Funny that it’s my first blog on cooking food considering how long I’ve been cooking and how much I love great food!
Sounds delicious, and my stomach is starting to grumble (it is lunchtime here!). I was also interested in your meat mallet. I had a recipe I used to do years ago which required you to flatten the chicken breasts, but I haven’t done it any other time. Sounds like that’s a useful trick to use in a variety of dishes, both to tenderize and cook faster. Thanks for sharing your “experiment” – I think it will be in my future very soon 🙂
Hi, Imogen, I’ll get your email address and email you the link to the mallet I bought. It’s a cast iron covered with nickel I believe. It does the trick without making you work very hard at all. Let’s see if I can put the link here.
http://www.amazon.com/Fox-Run-5665-Cast-Pounder/dp/B0006GO0P4/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1324920877&sr=1-2-catcorr
I’ve had this for years.
Thanks for the link to the mallet. It looks like a good deal – I think I’ll have to invest in one 🙂
Imogen, I found a link to the nickel plated one that is 16.99. So you have two choices!
http://www.amazon.com/Harolds-Leveraged-Meat-Pounder/dp/B002B50F7U/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1324950084&sr=1-1-catcorr
Sounds and looks delicious. I love that you could figure this out on your own! And you take one mean picture!
Susan Berland
A Picture’s Worth
http://susan-berland.com
I’ve always had the knack of putting things together. Of course, I was taught that my eyes and hands would know how much of the ingredients to add to a dish! LOL. So are you going to give it a whirl?
mm delicious….Gorgeous recipe to
alternative chicken roasts, lovely ideas with the olives . If you – and your kids – are fed up to the back teeth with simple chicken roast this is the right recipe for meal
ideas for (and with)
your family.
Thanks, Harry! It’s just my husband and myself but I earned lots of hugs and kisses for the dinner! That’s valuable in itself!
Sounds delicious! I like to think out of the box when I cook too but I don’t often have the ingredients I need when the urge strikes me to cook.
You would be surprised what you can put together with what you have. Think further out. You always have olive oil, right? garlic? chili flakes? any vegie or leftover veggie or leftover over meat? Pasta with garlic and oil, veggies and meat added near the end to warm up. Or canned clams, or canned yellow tail tuna from Trader Joe’s. Any combination of the above items!
You have me craving something savory now and I’m in the middle of eating holiday cookies. Even though I don’t do it enough, it’s always fun to do a little “improvisational cooking” in the kitchen with whatever we have in the cabinet.
So glad I could inspire you. We just had the leftovers tonight! It was still delicious reheated!
Sounds delich..I don’t like olives so would omit them but the other ingredients are all what we eat and usually have in the house. I plan to try this recipe, thanks for sharing
You’re very welcome, @9bdc4b70c032b435192958fa86af3f60:disqus . Let me know how it comes out!
great sounding recipe, Julieanne. One of my very favorite things to do is to look in the ‘fridge , see what’s there and construct something new from it. I recently did a dynamite one with chunks of chicken (had been boiled), artichoke hearts, zucchini, olives and chard wit a little tomato sauce, mixed and baked as a casserole. Hmmm time to start thinking aout lunch. I love seeing this side of you! Painting and cooking and reconnecting, Dynamite Woman!
Thanks, @VickiDelloJoio:disqus ! I like that: Dynamite Woman! I’m excited about my latest painting too!
Yummers. Trying this one next. Always at a loss for what to do with chicken breasts. my least favorite meat.
I never liked the thighs and legs. I now enjoy the thighs and breasts get too dry for me. But flattening them to an even thickness breaks down the tissues, makes it easy to cook it quickly, keeping it moist. Lots of choices on sauces then! Let me know how it works for you.
Sounds wonderful. I have made a handful of chicken recipes and everytime I do, I go wrong by adding something that doesn’t go with the other ingredients. I’m obviously not a cook, have no creative talents in that area.
I suspect it’s not that important to you. However, if you do want to make something nice, google to find a recipe you can follow. That way you will put together things that go well together!
I find, too, that I am cooking the same things over and over, so it is good to learn about some new ways of preparing chicken especially; we eat lots of the organic chicken breasts, usually just with some vegetables and/or salad, but usually I bake it. So I am excited to try your new recipe here! I am also going to invest in a good meat mallet!
Donna, I posted a link to the mallet I use. It’s very easy to use and it gives great leverage for the least amount of work. The older styles are much harder to use. I posted this link below but here it is for you: http://www.amazon.com/Harolds-Leveraged-Meat-Pounder/dp/B002B50F7U/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1324950084&sr=1-1-catcorr
Love new ideas! Yes – California groceries are the abundant best! I found that my creativity has been stretched by signing up to have a box of vegetables delivered every week. It has become a bit of a personal challenge to get through them all and use them all. The box often includes things I would not have bought and don’t even know the name of, so it has pushed our menus to new places. Here is a link in case any if the Bay Area readers are interested
http://www.farmfreshtoyou.com/index.php
We have many CSA farmers who will deliver boxes of veggies. My stumbling block is my hubby. So I go to the markets and buy things we both love with luckily is a lot. We just had some wonderful Kale the other night and we have brussel sprouts to do too with some roasted chestnuts.
I still need to find a good farmer’s market by me. The last one I went to left a LOT to be desired, was overpriced, and most of it spoiled by the next day :-/ I wish I was closer to Tanaka Farms (Irvine) to get their boxes. The box options in IE aren’t as mixed. I think it would be fun to get fruits and veggies I don’t typically buy or can even identify, although I do worry that a lot would go to waste as I live in a picky house, lol.
Are you close to a Trader Joe’s? They have some good vegetables and you can get organic sweet bell peppers. They have tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers. The herbs you might need an additional store nearby. But even if you flatten the chicken breasts seasoned with herbs and add some melted butter near the end, you’d be fine for the picky eaters!
Now you make me want to go out and get a meat mallet! I’ve always just used the bottom of a wine bottle. A bit awkward, but works in a pinch! And, I just happen to have some chicken left over. While I won’t start with them uncooked, I’m going to make the same sauce and just throw the chicken into it- then over brown rice. Yum (or as my daughter would say, nom, nom.)
Candace, I put a couple of links in my replies for the mallet! I stumbled on to it and I’ve never seen again except on the web. I found it for my girlfriend who spent hours using a different mallet that took forever! Let me know how your’s comes out!